PREVIEW: Red Wings take on Oilers on Monday, wrap up four-game road trip through Pacific Northwest and Western Canada

EDMONTON -- Making the last stop of their four-game road swing through the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, the Detroit Red Wings will take on the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Monday night.

“We’re going to have to be on our toes,” Viktor Arvidsson said. “We’re playing a high-octane offense, so we got to be ready to defend hard and skate.”

Detroit SportsNet and 97.1 The Ticket will carry television and radio broadcast coverage, respectively, of Monday’s 7:30 p.m. MT/9:30 p.m. ET puck drop between Detroit (4-4-3; 11 points) and Edmonton (8-2-1; 17 points).

“Their whole offensive game is dangerous, and that’ll be the key tonight is keeping them in front of us and being above the puck at all times and making them come through us,” J.T. Compher said. “No easy rushes. No easy plays.”

These squads won’t meet again after this matchup until Jan. 2 at Little Caesars Arena, the second and final game of the season series.

“They’re managing the puck better maybe than they have in the past,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said of the Oilers, with whom he spent four seasons (2015-19) as their bench boss. “Not turning it over as much, forcing other teams to do some work to get out of their end. So, we’ll have to be on our toes. We have to be executing at a high level to try and beat it, but I’d like to think in turn we can do the same thing and improve our forecheck a little bit more going their way.”

In its last visit to Scotiabank Saddledome, which is set to close following the end of this NHL campaign, Detroit dropped a 4-1 decision to the Calgary Flames on Saturday. It was the club’s first regulation loss in seven contests and snapped its six-game point streak.

“With the Calgary game, we know there’s some stuff to clean up,” J.T. Compher said. “Some good in it, but not for long enough or sustained enough. Against a team like Edmonton, that can score they way it can, it’s got to be for 60 minutes through the whole lineup.”

A good chunk of their practice at Rogers Place on Sunday afternoon saw the Red Wings go through 2-on-1 drills in preparation for the Oilers, who currently lead the NHL in goals per game (4.36) and boast the top three scoring leaders in Connor McDavid (8-25—33), Leon Draisaitl (12-11—23) and Evan Bouchard (7-14—21).

“If we get those opportunities, we have to make good on them,” McLellan said. “We have to find ways to give us, our goaltenders and our penalty kill an offensive cushion. You don’t win a lot of games in this League 1-0, so we have to bear down in those situations. They’re very dynamic offensively. We know that and they’ll get their share of them too, so we worked on defending them as much as we did on the offensive side.”

Detroit held an optional morning skate on Monday, after which McLellan announced that Michal Postava will make his first career NHL start. Asked if there would be any changes to the rest of the lineup, McLellan said “we could have some.”

Edmonton most recently lost 7-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. McDavid recorded two assists against Toronto, extending his season-opening point streak to 11 consecutive games.

“Everything he does, he’s going so fast,” Alex DeBrincat said of McDavid. “I think some guys in the League can move that fast, but their bran can’t think that fast. He’s got it all. He can play on the D side of the puck and obviously O-zone. He’s probably the best player in the League and he’s going to be a tough matchup for us tonight.”